Managing User Credentials - References - SIMATIC AX - AX Hardware Engineering documentation - Hardware Engineering,

Hardware Engineering reference

Portfolio
SIMATIC AX
Product
SIMATIC AX
Software version
3.0.0
Edition
08/2025
Language
English (original)
Package Name
@ax/hw-docs

As user credentials must not be persisted in human-readable text for security reasons, the passwords for users cannot be defined in the hardware declaration file. Instead, credentials for the PLC's users can be managed through the manage-users command.

As a prerequisite for the configuration of user credentials, execute the setup-secure-communication command.

To set the password for the user from the above hardware declaration example file, run

apax hwc manage-users --input "example.hwl.yaml" --module-name "PLC_1" set-password --username "User1" --password ""

This will set the password for User1 to ExamplePassword#123.

The password will never be saved in clear text by the set-password command. Instead, security algorithms are applied to protect the password. It will be saved to the security configuration file for PLC_1. Storing the hash of the password is sufficient for compiling the PLC configuration, but the password cannot be determined from the saved data.

Note that a password needs to be set for every user specified in the hardware declaration file.

Password policy :

A valid password must meet the following requirements:

Properties Values
Minimum length 8
Maximum length 120
Minimum numeric digit 1
Minimum special character 0
Minimum upper case length 1
Minimum lower case length 1

To view the list of users for which credentials have already been configured, you can run the manage-users list command:

apax hwc manage-users --input "example.hwl.yaml" --module-name "PLC_1" list

To delete a user and its credentials from the security configuration file, the manage-users delete command can be used, e.g.:

apax hwc manage-users --input "example.hwl.yaml" --module-name "PLC_1" delete --username "user1"